Railway car construction



Sept. 13, 1932. w MURPHY I 1,877,422

RAILWAY CAR CONSTRUCTION Original Filed Jan. 14, 1929 Inventor.- W21 zerPM 111" f1 Patented Sept. 13,

UNITED STATES COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION-OF DELAWARE RAILWAY can {consrnucrioiv Original application filed January 14, 1929, Serial 332,326. Divided 22, 1931. Serial No. 545,977.

The device relates to railway freight cars, particularly, to that class of equipment having doors which are opened or dropped to i w invent on to a typlcal so-called hopper car discharge part or all of the lading.

The object of the invention is to provide a spreader or beam for simultaneous operation of a pair of swingable doors in a railway freight car, which spreader is operated by any of the numerous door raising mechanisms now being marketed. A further object of the invention is to provide such a spreader or beam with spaced apart portions, each of which engages one of the swingable doors so as to permit the door to adjust itself to the frame of the door opening by a slidable movement. Any force applied by the operating mechanism adjacent themiddle of the spreader is substantially equally distributed to the two doors, and furthermore, the force transmitted to one of the doors by the spreader is substantially equally dis tributed to the opposite vertical edge or mar gins of the door. In my construction, if the operating mechanism closes one door first, the operating mechanism continues functioning until the other door is closed; furthermore, if one side of one door reaches closed position first, the operating mechanism continues to operate until the other side of such door reaches closed position; in fact, the mechanism operates until all four edges of the two doors reach closed position.

A further object of the invention is to reduce the cost and weight of'the spreader and car by forming it of a casting so that the metal can be evenly distributed commensurate with the stresses.

Another object of the invention is to en gage the spreader with the door adjacent a stiffening rib or ribs so that the stresses caused by the lifting of the door will not be taken by the body portion of the door.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 shows a typical application of my invention to a railway car.

Fig. 2 shows a proved spreader.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view showing the relation of the spreader and one of the doors.

Fig. 4 shows an endelevation of Fig. 2.

pair of doors with my im- I and this application filed ,J' inc Fig. 5 shows a partial side elevationofa car. 1'

"F 1 shows a typical applicationof my wherein the lower portion of the car on each side of the center sills 2 or center ridge is :nected to the middle portion thereof and positioned between the center sills. and under the ridge for protection'from the lading and.

provided with a shaft extending to opposite sides of the car for operation by a wheel or wrench. There are numerous types of hopper dump cars in service on the railways with the hopper so positioned as to discharge ATEN F WALTER r. MURPHY, or CHICAGO, nmmors, ASSIGNOR To UNION METAL-PRODUCTS the load between the rails and some designed to discharge the load outside of the rails" There are also dump cars used in the coke service having a floor sloping toward one side of the car with the side wall comprising a plurality of swingable doors to discharge the cokeall on one side of the car. vention is adaptable to any one of the above described cars, or in fact, to any car having two or more doors simultaneously closed by a single operative mechanism.

Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show a construction wherein the spreader 55 is slidably connected to,

each door so that the door is free to slide upon the spreader to accommodate the inequalities of the car. I i

In the form illustrated each door "is provided with a T shaped groove and the spreader is provided with spaced apart T shape-d portions slidably engaging said grooves in My inthe doors. The door is provided with lips 58 which overlie a portion 59 of the spreader so that after the spreader is engaged with the two doors and the two doors are hinged to the car the spreader cannot become disengaged from either of the doors until the hinge pins of one of the doors are removed.

In some cars the spreaders are extended to engage locking mechanisms supported by and secured to the side of the car. A common form of locking mechanism comprises a hook 7 0 which falls into place by gravity and en- Til gages the extremities 71 of the spreader, which hook is held in place by a locking cam 72. In some cars these outside looking mechanisms constitute the only means of holding the spreader and the doors in closed position. When it is desired to use such a locking mechanism I extend my spreaders so that their extremities may engage such locking mechanisms. r r Y The accompanying drawing illustrates the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention-is not limited to the, exact details of construction shown'anddescribed, as it"is obvious that,

various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claim, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

This is a division of my co-pending application Serial No. 332,326, filed January 14, 1929. i

I claim v I In a railway car, a pair of hinged dumping doors, each-provided with a T shaped groove,

and a spreader having spaced apart T shaped portions slidably engaging said grooves so as to permit slidable movement between the door and the spreader in a plane Substantially parallel to the lane of the door. WVALTER MURPHY. 

